Poll: Your thoughts on the number of St. Louis Police districts being reduced from nine to six
For decades the Metropolitan St. Louis Police Department has had nine districts. Effective last Monday the number was reduced to six. A week ago Chief Sam Dotson wrote on his blog:
The redesigned police districts will be more fully staffed, more streamlined, more efficient and more precisely balanced in terms of calls-for-service and crime numbers. The new system more readily lends itself to our core strategy of hot-spot policing. The transition has given us an opportunity to re-assign key personnel and give the new districts more cohesive and well lead management teams.
And yet for all the history-making significance of redistricting, the impact on the public will be so minor, I doubt most people will even notice.
You can see maps on Dotson’s proposal here.
I know St. Louis often resists change, so the poll this week asks for your thoughts on the number of St. Louis Police districts being reduced from nine to six. You can take the poll in the right sidebar.
— Steve Patterson
The number of districts is not very important. The number of officers on the street, how effectively they’re deployed and managed and how much crime is contained and reduced IS important. Times change – restructuring to meet current realities makes sense to me.
I feel it is a move in the right direction. I have heard the complaint from Officers in the past about the number of Police that were actually on the street. Too many “special” units. I guess we are seeing what local control means.
At a community meeting last week in my neighborhood our new captain spoke. When asked about the substation and if it would stay open he said “Give us a little time. We don’t know where it is. We’ll find it though.” And “Be patient if cars take a bit longer to respond. We don’t know our way around yet.” It reminded me of the guy in charge of snow removal when he decided to plow the side streets a few weeks ago: “We’ll hit a few cars and knock off a few mirrors but we’ll get it done.” (Quote of the year in my book) And totally unrelated, Tom Keefe at SLU Law: “I have chosen to step down because obviously there have been statements made about things I have done, and in all likelihood I’ve done them all,” “The problem is I’m just too politically incorrect to be a dean.” Not to mention what exactly he was talking about. And it goes on and on. I guess the question is, what’s with the aw shucks plain spoken public statements from many people on power in St. Louis? On the other hand, I’ve been very impressed with how VERY articulate the new police chief is. I like that I’m able listen to him and not wonder what the hell happened afterward.
Most of the folks in the city are good decent people, and if you set aside the black on black crime, the city is just as safe as the county. Not sure why a subculture of the blacks in the city want to get involved with spirtual sickness, an irony considering the number of churches in the north city.